COLUMBIA, Mo. – Wichita State's Elkana Kipruto broke the Shockers' 8,000-meter record by 45 seconds to record a runner-up finish and lead the men's team to a seventh-place team result Friday morning at the Pre-National Invitational at Gans Creek Cross Country Course.
The sophomore from Kapsabet, Kenya ran 22:45.6, just one second behind Florida's Kelvin Cheruiyot, to finish in second place, defeating the USTFCCCA National Runner of the Week from two weeks ago, Timothy Chesondin from Arkansas.
"He was just going for the win. That's all there was to it," head coach
Kirk Hunter said. "Incredibly tough race. He is such an enormous talent, it's unbelievable. It was really a fun race to watch."
After the 2K mark, Kipruto never dropped out of the top seven, working to stay up with the lead pack throughout the race.
"He looked like he was running controlled and running smart," Hunter said. "He had a spot around 4K where there was a surge by three people in the front, and they separated from him, but what impressed me was how he just went after them and closed it back down and got back in there."
Kipruto has now led the Shockers in all three races he's run and finished top two each time out.
Adrian Diaz Lopez was the second Shocker to cross the line, finishing 18
th with a personal-best 8K time of 23:35.7, and
Kelvin Kipyego finished 39
th with a personal-best time of 24:00.4.
"Our first three guys ran incredibly well and had a great race today," Hunter said.
Zander Cobb finished 100
th with a time of 24:43.1, and freshman
Austin Carrera was the fifth scorer for the Shockers in his first race in a Wichita State uniform, running 24:56.7 to finish 120
th.
"Our superstar freshman, Austin, had a great race," Hunter said. "For a freshman to do what he did and be our fifth man is amazing."
Unranked Georgia won the men's team title with 119 points, and Wichita State finished seventh with 265 points, ahead of No. 22 Arkansas and receiving votes Wyoming.
"We've got to get better," Hunter said. "It's going to be nice going into conference with this as a momentum builder, but we understand the difference between a conference meet and a meet like this. There won't be as many numbers out there, so it's going to be a lot tighter, and we can't have mistakes."
In the women's 6K,
Lucy Ndungu was the first Shocker across the line, running a personal-best 20:31.6 to finish 44
th and lead Wichita State to a 24
th-place team finish out of 38.
"Lucy ran really smart," Hunter said. "She just kept moving through the crowds, kept moving up, moving up, moving up and did everything the way she was supposed to do it. She ran a fabulous race. In a field like this and her second race back since being out for a year, the girl is tough. That's all there is to it."
Freshman
Mercy Jepkoech was the second Wichita State athlete across the line, finishing 104
th in 21:07.9, and
Sarah Bertry (154
th; 21:33.4),
Faith Ekart (227
th; 22:05.8), and
Francesca Alvarado (239
th; 22:10.7) were also scoring finishers for the Shockers.
"Faith and Francesca ran really strong," Hunter said. "They had some really strong performances to help our team. Without those two, we would have been in trouble, so I'm really excited for what they did."
No. 1 BYU won the women's team title as the Shockers took 24
th, defeating Midwest Region No. 14 Illinois and No. 15 Iowa along with eight other regionally-ranked teams in their respective regions.
Both Shocker teams have now concluded their regular seasons and will prepare for the American Conference Championships on Saturday, Nov. 1 in Concord, N.C.
MEN'S RESULTS
WOMEN'S RESULTS
